"Should Be A Reasonably Good Time"

This is Bobby Sheehan, when he was a California Golden Seal. Sheehan was fast, when he was with Montreal there were articles implying he was faster than Yvan Cournoyer (who was real fast, and extremely skilled).

Sheehan played for the Edmonton Oilers of the WHA, a season and a little bit in the mid-70s. Oilers gave up Bob Falkenberg to get him, and he was a pretty good defenseman.

Anyway, I'm using Sheehan as a starting point for the Edmonton Oilers. Incredibly, there have been very few changes over the years for this organization. Most are subtle, like Bob Falkenberg for Bobby Sheehan.

Some are less so, like Glen Sather out, Kevin Lowe in. Let's make a list of major Oil changes throughout their history:

1. WHA Oilers-The Bill Hunter Era (72-78)
2. Boys on the Bus, the Golden Years (79-92)
3. The Sather Coda (93-99)
4. Lowe and MacTavish (00-07)

Really that's it. Four distinct changes in the life of a franchise fully 35 years old. It isn't many, there are organizations who go through 4 changes in a decade (more when Harold was around).

I think we can begin to see the seeds of a new era in Oilers history being sewn this spring. One of the truly amazing quotes in Oilers history hit the Journal's pages awhile ago:

Nichols says he wouldn’t have traded Pronger so quickly. “To a hockey person, their first mindset is: ‘I’ve been dealt this blow, I’ve got to get the best possible assets in return, to try to keep being competitive and entertaining.’ The business side of me says, ‘Balderdash! As a matter of principle, we had a deal in good faith.’ “I would have said, ‘Ah, sorry, we got a contractual arrangement. Go sit in the corner.’ ” But Nichols says he never told Lowe how to handle the Pronger situation. It’s not his job to assemble the team, he says, it’s Lowe’s job. “This was only in my mind. I didn’t say a word. I trust Kevin Lowe.”

That's a stunner right there, folks. It's hard to imagine a poorer choice of words in this scenario. Actually, it's a great quote IF YOU'VE JUST FIRED KEVIN LOWE. Otherwise, it's a kick in the junk and everyone who has ever been an employee (everyone but the Queen and her photogenic family) knows it, and to end it with "I trust Kevin Lowe" is just so completely ridiculous one hopes he at least choked on it.

I don't know Kevin Lowe from Adam, but I think most of us would react to that (and the season as it rolled out) by aggressively pursuing a "make good" offseason. They bullied us out of what we needed in the summer, and the rosters froze in the season as we haven't seen before, but we'll get them this time. That kind of thing.

Recently, Kevin Lowe held court with the media and gave his state of the Union address. Unlike previous seasons where he seemed to have a strong vision that had legs with the fanbase ("expect the unexpected") this year's model is tentative and without a sell line. Some quotes:

• "What stands out most for me is the inability to make a deal like we did last year." Us too, Kevin, us too. I don't recall an NHL GM who went from penthouse to the outhouse in a quicker period of time. If he wasn't Kevin Lowe, he might have been fired.
• "We need, I don't want to say every position but practically every position." Incredible statement for a man who went to G7, SCF last spring but if you listen to the tape no one in the room is disagreeing with him.
• "In the new cap world, and free agency at a younger age. I think it's a pretty good year for free agents, a decent year." Sounds pretty exciting, eh? I was driving through Montana many years ago when a voice came on the radio promoting the summer fair. At the end of the commercial, the voice said "Montana's Summer Fair, should be a reasonably good time!" I damn near drove off the road laughing, but that's what Lowe seems to be saying. You may not fall asleep! Yahoo!
• "We'll get involved in free agency and hope we can be successful." If eeyore ever gets a GM job, that should be his motto. Good grief.
• "If we don't acquire the players we think we need to acquire, to make our team better, we'll have to revert to Plan B, Plan B is making deals for RFA's or just trying to make deals to improve the hockey club." I read this as saying "if we can't hit a home run, we're certainly going to shore up areas of weakness among the second tier." THAT is very good news imo, exactly what they should be doing in a transition season.
• "I'm fully convinced and supportive of that group (the coaching staff), providing they get the team they need, and they are going to be very active in the construction of the team. To me that's one of the things that I believe is changing as well, almost like an NFL model where the coaching staff participates in the player selection." Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but the portion in bold seems to imply that some things may be out of the hands of Lowe and MacT. Is that reaching? I don't honestly know. Maybe we can assume he's talking about the request for a larger budget. I had no idea that there were NHL teams that didn't allow the coach massive input on player procurement. I assume they are teams like Columbus.
• "Mac and I have had that kind of relationship in terms of player selection, not so much in the draft but in players trades and stuff." I'm not certain this remains true. For instance, can you imagine MacT not saying anything about the defense this season? Maybe I'm making too much of this, but any good coach (or baseball manager) is going to want a replacement for his poor fielding, .220 hitting second baseman who doesn't walk much and has no power. Right? Tell me there's a coach or baseball manager who would allow a very poor player 500 at-bats without saying a word. Whoever it is, I don't want that guy coaching my hockey team.

It seems to me the Edmonton Oilers this summer are as confused as they've been since the Bill Hunter years when he fired coaches approximately one half hour after telling the media there was no way he was going to fire the coach (Hunter did some strange things with his coaches, kind of like Lou in New Jersey).

Are we seeing the beginning of another shift in franchise history? Probably. However, it should be a reasonably good time watching.